Moving from eu settlement scheme application to spouse visa

[ibzy]

Hi!

Me and my partner have been living together in the UK for the past 4 years. She originally came here on a youth mobility visa and we got married back in 2021. She then put in an application for the EU settlement scheme (as I am a Dutch citizen with settled status). However, this got rejected as the home office incorrectly assessed the application on the basis that we got married after Dec 2020, however it states on their website that we could apply as a durable partner since we have been living together for longer than 2 years (and provided evidence of this).

We decided to do an admin review and it has now been 20 months without a response from them and in the meantime we have continued to live together and she has been working, as her right to live and work continues while the admin review is going on.

We have now decided to apply for a spouse visa instead as it is taking too long. On the application it asks for immigration history and then asks if she's been refused a visa or refused permission to stay or remain

Just wondering if we have to answer yes to this due to her EU settlement refusal? We've spoken to a few lawyers in the past and they all mentioned that the EU settlement scheme is classified differently than a normal visa so this wouldn't apply. Similarly we want to do a priority service and you typically can't do that if this applies.

Does anyone know if this applies to us as we are not sure?

Thanks for the help!